One of the major problems that Lauren and I experienced with our Short Term Rental property was temperature control. We own in a snow resort and our unit is heated by in-wall/fan forced electrical heaters.
These heaters all have a control knob (low, medium, high) to set the temperature which makes gauging the temperature nearly impossible.
We know from trial and error that medium-high will keep the place warm. Setting the knob to low-medium when we leave will prevent the pipes from freezing. This strategy has worked to prevent freezing pipes but results in an awful first night at our property.
The average temperature on arrival to our place in the winter has been below 50 degrees. To address this we crank the heaters up high for hours. We also start a fire for additional heat. The property is large so it can take 4-5 hours to reach a comfortable temperature.
To assist with our first night heating problems we bought additional space heaters with built in thermostats. This helped us heat the place and confirmed how truly cold our place was on arrival.
However, this was a pretty poor solution. We had to put away the additional space heaters because guests would trip the circuit breaker. Usually running a hair dryer and heater off of the same outlet….
Guests would deal with the cold by setting our heaters to HIGH... The electric bill would go through the roof during the Winter.
Another side effect of renting is that our guests would leave the heaters on full when they checked out. We found this out when we checked on our place and found all the heaters on high. Sometimes the heaters would be on high for days….
We knew we needed to automate our unit. The problem was how do we automate Five separate heaters….
Then we discovered MYSA…
MYSA smart thermostats are designed specifically for baseboard and in-wall heaters and they work perfectly. We installed one for each heater and can control the thermostats remotely using the MYSA app. This has been a game changer for our unit.
8 Great things about our MYSA Thermostats
- We now know the temperature in the unit and in each room.
- The MYSA app allows us to check and adjust the temperature remotely.
- The ability to change the temperature remotely has been the greatest feature of having MYSA thermostats. We set the heaters to 75 degrees when traveling to our property. I can not express how nice it is to enter our unit with a temperature of 75 degrees. The days of 45 degrees are gone and I feel like we gained an additional night. It can be hard to sleep when the temp is 45…..
- It is easy to set a baseline temperature when the unit is not in use.
- You can set the Thermostat display to 0% when inactive and the display will turn off. This setting is great for the thermostats in bedrooms.
- The temperature can be set to Celsius or Fahrenheit
- The set up is very easy…. see below
- You can manage more than one property with the MYSA app
The only downside is that the touch screen sensitivity is a little low. I recommend leaving instructions for your guests describing how to use the MYSA thermostats and notifying them of the decreased touch sensitivity.
Installation and instructions
- Have a licensed electrician install you MYSA thermostats
- Download the app
- Follow the instructions on the app and create a new home
- Start with the breaker for the heater in the off position… Turn on the breaker for the thermostat you are programming
- Scan the QR code with your phone
- Stand near the Thermostat that is pairing
- Add the thermostat to the correct property (ex unit 1, unit 2)
- Select baseboard, fan forced, radiant
- Adjust the the display brightness (active and inactive)
- Enjoy
To purchase MYSA thermostats visit www.getmysa.com